Dear Aislynn:

Yoga is or should be a mindfulness practice, mindfulness or attention to the body and to the moving of the body. It always starts, continues and ends with breathing. And then it is paying attention to the body. For example in mountain pose, you start with paying attention to your feet: stand with your big toes touching. So when you look at your toes or place them so the big toes are touching, at that moment, you are focusing on your big toes/ feet- and at least at that moment- your mind is not rushing with thoughts. Then you lift your toes and the balls of your feet, spread your toes and place them gently on the floor. Again, as you do just that, your attention is on your toes and ball of feet and on how it feels to lift them, spread toes, gently place on floor. Then you lift your heels… and rock back and forth a bit and side to side as you establish a feel of your feet on the floor. As you do these things you attend to your body and to how it feels. As you do that your brain is not rushing with thoughts.

The idea is to practice mindfulness throughout the day. You can say: practice yoga throughout the day… pay attention to your body and how you move it, making movements intentional and not automatic. Our brains wonder with thinking when we do things automatically.

anita